Saturday, 24 November 2012

Christmas bunting

Well. Clearly I'm ALL about the bunting at the moment. This bunting project is easy peasy, but a bit fiddly. It took me the best part of a day to make. To be fair to me though, I AM very lazy and I DID have to keep stopping to watch TV, so you might find that you romp through it.

I made this bunting using the same Tim Holtz rosette die and Memory Box snowflake corner dies I used for the Halloween bunting. The only difference is that I layered up two cuts of the rosette die to make a bigger rosette.Tim's Youtube video explains how to do this. It's pretty straightforward.

DO stick tape of some kind to the back of the strip before you fold. It pretty much eliminates the problem of paper tearing and foul language that can happen when you fan the rosette out.Also, keep the serrated edge waste from the die cut. You can use this to trim each piece of bunting in paper that matches the rosette (I used an old Cosmo Cricket Christmas range).

I secured the back of each rosette with the centre circle from the rosette die (because I'd made two cuts for each rosette, I had a centre to use front and back). Then I glued some vintage tiny tinsel to the back of the other centre circle, so that it peeped out round the edge. Then I glued that to the front of the rosette.

For the pennant, I hand cut some triangles and stamped them with a Tim Holtz snowflake stamp using distress ink. I used the second, third & fourth impressions (stamping the first impression onto scrap paper first, to get rid of the excess ink) as I wanted a faded background. Light squirt of Perfect Pearls mist over the top (I used Heirloom Gold). Ink round the edges to give some definition.

The starburst at the back of the rosette is the Memory Box snowflake die. It's a corner die, so you need to cut four for each rosette. Line up the straight edges so that the right angles meet. Add glue to the back of the rosette and carefully place down. You might then want to fiddle a bit to get the best placement. (Be warned, these critters like to tangle and latch on to each other. A steady hand and low blood pressure are a boon at this point.) Then glue the whole thing onto the triangle. I'd use a glue gun, you don't want that sucker falling off right when your visitors are standing before it, gazing in awe and wonder. The shame!

Hole punch each side and thread through some rustic twine. Et voila. You got yourself a Christmas banner there, boy!